With 566 municipalities, New Jersey has a lot of small-town mayors. But few made a splash like Steve Lonegan.

Lonegan, a Republican now running for governor, spent three terms as mayor of Bogota, a borough of about 8,000 people in Bergen County. While he lost campaigns for higher office -- state Senate, Congress and governor -- along the way, it was Bogota that gave Lonegan a platform to weigh in on controversial statewide issues from debt to immigration.

Tim Farrell/The Star-LedgerRepublican gubernatorial candidate Steve Lonegan at a fund raiser at the Deutscher Club in Clark in May.

In overseeing the town's finances, he also made stark choices he said reflect his executive judgment. He said he would bring the "same exact philosophy" -- save a "couple digits" -- to managing the $30 billion state budget that he did to Bogota's $7 million plan.

But foes -- including the current mayor -- say Lonegan's fiscal moves went too far and left the town strapped. Bogota, they say, would have been better served if the outspoken mayor was less divisive.

"Anybody can not spend money, but eventually you have to start replacing things. said Bogota Mayor Patrick McHale, a Democrat. "We have some roads that haven't been paved in 30 years."

Elected in 1995, Lonegan took over a borough government with about 65 employees. By the time he left, he said, that was down to the mid-40s, as he outsourced work to private companies in areas like bookkeeping and garbage pick-up. He also made enemies in the borough police department after an effort to replace uniformed officers with civilian dispatchers.

Municipal tax records show an overall 6 percent decline in the borough tax rate during his 12 years in office. But the tax rate fluctuated, rising in certain years -- by nearly 6 percent in 1998 and 2007, for example -- and dropping in others, falling 22 percent in 2002.

Attack ads paid for by rival Chris Christie's campaign single out two years: 2006 and 2007. In 2006, the borough's proposed budget would have raised taxes by 15 percent, but the final budget passed with a 3.7 percent increase. The next year, the preliminary budget would have raised taxes by 10 percent, but the final increase was closer to 6 percent.

"The real budget is the one that matters," Lonegan said in an interview. "The mayor cuts and slashes and downsizes."

He also pursued and accepted state grants, including extraordinary state aid that helped ease the budget blow in 2006.

"Steve, as a point man for the administration, often did say no to people, or 'not this year,'" said Andrew Fede, the borough attorney under Lonegan. "What Steve was doing was right for the town."

But McHale said Lonegan artificially kept taxes low by postponing necessary moves like upgrading public works equipment, paving roads and finalizing a new police contract. The town is now forced to consider merging police forces with neighboring Teaneck, McHale said.

"I think he knew that financially things were coming to a head here, and someone would have to raise taxes," said McHale, whose first budget hiked municipal taxes 10 percent last year. "And he didn't want to be the guy to do it."

Lonegan disputes that and said he made it clear from the beginning he intended to serve three terms. He easily won his last election, in 2003, with 1,091 votes.

"I left the town in excellent financial condition," he said.

But he often stirred controversy far beyond Bogota.

Before leaving office, he sued two critics for defamation; the lawsuit was thrown out. Afterward, he was arrested for protesting outside a town hall meeting hosted by Democratic Gov. Jon Corzine in 2008. The charges were dropped.

While still the mayor, Lonegan took brash stances on state and national issues, including going to the state Supreme Court to try to stop state borrowing. He went to Newark on Martin Luther King Day to hold an anti-affirmative action program on a street named after the slain civil rights leader, and led a protest in Maplewood against excluding overtly religious songs from a high school concert.

But the touchiest issue was immigration, as Lonegan presided over a town with one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in New Jersey.

He called for a McDonald's boycott after the fast-food chain put up a Spanish-language billboard in Bogota. He pushed to make English the town's official language, but the state Supreme Court said his resolution could not make the ballot. He advocated applying for a federal program that would have allowed Bogota police to enforce immigration laws.

In late 2007, Lonegan was caught hiring two illegal immigrants to assemble political signs for his taxpayer advocacy group, prompting charges of hypocrisy. Immigrant advocacy groups also criticized his moves as intolerant and inflammatory.

Lonegan said he does not regret making immigration a centerpiece of his record -- or any other stances he took in Bogota.